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US Father-Son Finals
By Rob Dinerman, Apr 21, 2007    
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2007 SquashTalk LLC

U. S. Father & Son : Parks vanquish Simontons  

Dateline April 23 ---

Faced with a game-ball against them the losing of which would have put them in a probably insurmountable two-games-to-love hole against their top-seeded defending-champion opponents, Greg Park and his father, Steve, took that crucial exchange on the former’s backhand mid-court three-wall winner and subsequently rode a 12-3 fifth-game burst to a 13-15 16-15 15-8 10-15 15-10 victory this afternoon over Scott and Will Simonton in the final round of the Open division in the third annual U. S. National Father & Son championships, held in New York City, as has been the case in each year of this tournament’s brief history.

Joining the Parks in the winner’s circle on this sunny Sunday at the Racquet & Tennis Club in mid-town Manhattan (mentioning the fathers first in each instance) were 13-and-under champs Peter and Spencer Stokes, who prevailed in three against Bill and Browning Platt; 17-and-under victors John and Jack Ervasti, 3-0 final-round winners at the expense of Michael and Zeke Scherl; and Century titlists Sam and Kevin Jernigan, who responded to fifth-game deficits of 5-1 and 8-5 by running off the final 10 points of their 11-15 15-11 15-7 13-15 15-8 victory over Dave Vahlsing Sr. and Jr.

The Simontons, the only team of the eight finalists in which both members were college standouts (Scott played No. 1 at Bowdoin in the mid-1970’s while Will, currently a Penn senior, reached the Intercollegiate Doubles final a few years ago) were attempting to become the first successfully defending champion in Father & Son competition, and the team balance they present as a well-integrated unit has enabled them both to come through in the closing moments of tight games and to rise superior even when faced with an ISDA-level individual opponent. These traits were on noteworthy display a year ago in their wins in both the semis (where they survived a double-match-point fourth-game predicament against ISDA superstar Preston Quick and his father, Taylor, then ran off and hid in the 15-8 fifth) and final, in which after dropping the opening game they won tiebreakers in the second and final fourth in conquering ’05 Open champs Noah Wimmer (an ISDA top-30 at the time) and his father, Robert, whose recent hip injury kept this duo from participating in this year’s tourney.

The Simontons faced a similar challenge in this year’s final, given Greg Park’s achievements this past season, during which he won the Jimmy Dunn event and reached the U. S. National Doubles A semis, in each case with Rob Whitehouse, and also combined with Dana Betts to reach the U. S. Mixed Doubles semifinals. And again the Simontons seemed poised to persevere, eking out a 15-13 first game on what appeared to be a mis-hit shallow rail winner off Will’s bat at 14-13 that just sneaked above the tin, and then rallying from 11-13 and 0-2, set-three to force a simultaneous game-ball in the second, a game the Parks clearly HAD to have to have any realistic hope of winning the match.

The stage seemed perfectly set for yet another Simonton crunch-time triumph, but this time (and four lets later) Greg Park’s nick-finding three-wall gave his team that crucial game and jumpstarted a spree of winners of all sorts that carried through the single-figure third as well. The Simontons were able to stabilize the play in the 15-10 (from 12-10) fourth game and looked to be in good shape early on in the fifth, only to submarine themselves with an unforeseeable and unsustainable rash of errors in mid-game during that 12-3 avalanche that sealed their fate. Especially harmful was a 90-second stretch in which a 5-4 Park advantage ballooned to 8-4 when Will Simonton tinned a cross-court and tinned on his ensuing serve-return, following which his father tinned HIS serve-return.

The Parks poured it on from there, with Steve contributing several reverse-corner winners to move the score to 14-6, when with the match seemingly safely in hand, he erred on two consecutive points and the Simontons opportunistically cut their deficit in half. But at 10-14, and just when thoughts of a successful Simonton rally had moved from unthinkable into the realm of possibility, Greg Park emphatically ended matters with a scorching forehand cross-court inside-out rail that screamed into the front right-wall nick while his opponents watched in immobilized dismay.

Jernigans Take Century Title

As noted, this Open final was preceded by another route-goer which also featured a decisive fifth-game surge. Both sons competing in the Jernigan-Vahlsing final are currently based in San Francisco, and indeed they were partners in the ’04 William White Invitational. Both were stationed on the left wall in this contest, though each did plenty of roaming while covering for their respective fathers. In out-playing top-seeded Doug Whittaker, the current Germantown Club head pro, and his father Bud, the recently crowned U. S. 75-and-over champion (with Howie Rober), three games to love, the Vahlsings had exploited the front-right portion of the court, which they were able to also do in the opening game of the final, as well as late in the fourth and in their move to a 7-5 lead in the fifth, at which point the disarray that had crept into the Jernigans’ game was exemplified when Kevin Jernigan lashed a backhand cross-court down the middle that sailed directly into his father’s midsection.

No one in the gallery who had observed this embarrassing family miscue could have foreseen that it would be the last point the Jernigans would lose all day, but by midway though their aforementioned 10-0 closing run (keyed by Sam’s best play of the match and Kevin’s slew of all-court winners), the air was visibly and alarmingly seeping out of the Vahlsings, with Dave Sr., who had previously been out-performing Sam Jernigan on the right, increasingly pinned in the back of the court while his son, spent by his exertions and deflated as the deficit inexorably mounted, tinned many of the short shots he had previously been successfully executing as the last few points slipped quietly away.

Stokes, Ervastis Triumph

Unlike their two “older” counterparts, in each of which the winning father/son duo broke away in the fifth game of what had heretofore been a dead-even match, both the 13-and-under and 17-and-under finals witnessed the losing team get closer and closer to their rivals, in each case forcing a third-set tiebreaker which in each case, however, they were unable to convert. Peter Stokes, who has won both the National hardball 45’s and the William White 45 doubles in recent years, was the dominant figure in his and son Spencer’s 15-10 15-11 18-16 13-and-under final over Bill and Browning Platt. The latter is the current U. S. under-15’s national doubles champion (along with Scott Chapin, who with father Sam were the Platts’ first-round opponents this past weekend) and he and Bill played extremely well in their home-court Union Club terrain in their 3-1 quarter- and semi-final Saturday wins over David and Harry Ganek and Sam and Jon Conant respectively. But Spencer Stokes was able to hold his own against Browning Platt’s cross-court attack and Peter Stokes was able to score just enough winners with his accurate short game to spell the difference in the 5-3 (from 3-all) tiebreaker session that concluded the third and final game.

Jack Ervasti, the reigning (with Jason Michas) U. S. under-17 national double title-holder, played the same role in the 17-and-under final that his left-wall counterpart Peter Stokes had done in the 13-and-under flight. The rangy southpaw Heights Casino product sports an amazingly potent forehand three-wall and reverse corner, which is effectively complemented by the solid, error-free play that characterizes his father John’s game, and the combination was a little too much for former Maccabiah Games U. S. team member Michael Scherl and his son Zeke to handle on this occasion. After falling behind their more experienced foes, two games to love, the Scherls actually led 12-8 in the third, but another spurt of Jack Ervasti winners forced a best-of-nine tiebreaker, in which the Ervastis led four points to two when the ball broke.

After a new one had been warmed up, a lengthy cross-court exchange between the two fathers finally ended when John Ervasti hit a forehand rail down the right wall to such good length that it died in back before Zeke Scherl could excavate it from the depths of the back wall.

The weekend was a major success, both in terms of number of entries (44 this year, a dozen more than in ’06, even with some injury-caused non-returns) and in terms of the quality of play, which, with the likely exception of the Century division (in which neither finalist seemed quite as strong as the ’06 champion Vlceks, John and Eric, who were denied a chance to defend this year when Eric ruptured his left Achilles tendon in February), has clearly and substantially improved from one year to the next: this is especially true of the two “junior” divisions and a reflection of the growth that doubles squash has steadily undergone nation-wide in recent years. There is no question that this tournament represented a highly praiseworthy way to end the USSRA 2006-07 doubles season and that an even brighter future lies ahead for this championship.

Finals Recap (father mentioned first)
Open: Steve and Greg Park d Scott and Will Simonton, 13-15 16-15 15-8 10-15 15-10
Century: Sam and Kevin Jernigan d Dave Vahlsing Sr. and Jr., 11-15 15-11 15-7 13-15 15-8
17-and-under: John and Jack Ervasti d Michael and Zeke Scherl, 15-10 15-11 18-15
13-and-under: Peter and Spencer Stokes d Bill and Browning Platt, 15-9 15-11 18-16

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